“My job has recently been transferred from the UK to an Asian country. With the move from my established position to a new challenging role in a new environment, I suddenly found myself lacking my usual level of confidence...”

Positive Voice Blog

Your beliefs shape your reality. They can affect your levels of happiness and confidence. If you believe that life is hard and that everyone is out to get you, then your behaviour is likely to invite in negative experiences. However, if you believe that we live in a friendly world full of abundance, your behaviour will reflect that and it is likely that your experiences will be different too. That is not to say that you will never encounter challenges or obstacles, but you will find that they are less prevalent in your life when your beliefs are more positive.

I choose my beliefs very carefully because I know that they have a big impact on how I live my life and how others respond to me.

My Top Beliefs!

A positive outlook invites positive experiences

Just because I believe one thing and you believe another, doesn’t mean we can’t both be right. There is a great saying in NLP: ‘It’s true if it’s true for you’

‘Being right’ will not necessarily make you happy

Those who challenge you can be seen as your greatest teachers- they can be a wonderful catalyst for personal development if you choose to see them in this more positive light.

If you feel challenged, it simply means there is room for you to grow. If you embrace the challenge, you will feel stronger

My Beliefs Explained:

I believe that the things you are passionate about, combined with your beliefs, will lead you to your life purpose. If you really believe something and are passionate about it, then follow that path.

However, expecting everyone to agree with you will set you up for a fall. Just because not everyone agrees, it doesn’t make you any less right or them any more wrong. This is just the nature of beliefs. The challenge here is to feel comfortable enough with your beliefs that you don’t need others to believe them too. Often, people feel the need to convert all those around them in order to really believe that they are right. Perhaps, this is because they are experiencing a tiny element of doubt regarding their beliefs that can only be quashed by converting everyone around them. The irony here is that no belief is necessarily ‘right’- it is only through believing something that you can make it true for you.

So, you see, it is important not to confuse beliefs with knowledge. Our beliefs 200 years ago were very different from the beliefs we hold today because we now have more knowledge. For instance, it is just 139 years since the invention of the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell 1876) and 106 years since the invention of television (1909 George Rignoux and A Fournier, Paris). Since these times, we have gone on to develop mobile phones (the first handheld device was created in1973; just 42 years ago) and the internet. I’m sure that many of these incredible inventors were seen as insane in their time because people just couldn’t ‘believe’ what they were hearing. It was too far beyond their limited understanding of the world, and who is to say that our current understanding is really that much greater? You see, we don’t know what we don’t know, do we?

Additionally, it has been shown that our beliefs can actually limit us. A great example of this is the ‘four minute mile’. Before 1954, no one believed it was possible to run a mile in less than 4 minutes. Until, that is, Roger Bannister broke the record by running a mile in: 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Interestingly, as soon as he achieved this, lots of other people followed suit. In this case, it was a change in belief that improved ability. This is a great example of the power of the mind and how an empowering belief can improve our performance.

This is why being open minded is so important. Perhaps, anything is possible.

How to Hold on to Your Beliefs Whilst Respecting Those of Others:

Listen with an open mind and remember that just because you are passionate about your beliefs, it does not make them 100% water tight. Do not let fear cause you to become a ‘preacher’. You will help many more people by leading by example (if that is your goal).

Practice Compassion:

People are often fearful when others don’t share their beliefs. Not everyone understands the concept: ‘Being right won’t necessarily make you happy’. In fact, their desire to be right is often so great that they lose friends, sleep and peace of mind in order to prove themselves ‘right’. This is often done through confrontation, which of course breeds more confrontation.

How can you respond to this?

Forgive them if they get upset or angry. Their emotions relate to fear. They are not their behaviour; their behaviour is just a reflection of their fear.

Practice compassion and forgiveness by seeing their vulnerability.

Flexibility:

Just because I want one thing doesn’t mean that you have to go in that direction too. We are both individuals. It is impossible to change others, you can only change yourself- this doesn’t mean you have to do what they are doing (unless you want to), it purely means that you can choose to change the way you feel about their actions.

How can you do this?

Again, it comes down to flexibility and forgiveness. You can practice this by changing your thoughts and you can change your thoughts more easily than you would ever believe. One way to do this is to repeat mantras (a mantra, in essence, is just a repeated thought).

Try repeating, “I am feeling more and more confident about my beliefs”.

I choose to believe all these things because they make me feel better.